Local employment initiatives make it possible to improve living and working conditions.

The 10 % that has so far been spent on local employment initiatives is nowhere near enough.

Therefore I should like to point out that regional and local employment initiatives must be encouraged before anything else.

Part One will concentrate on monitoring arrangements for local employment initiatives.

We believe in local employment initiatives in housing, schools and hospitals.

It is also necessary to use local employment initiatives to create more employment.

Statutory local employment initiatives were for the crappiest manual jobs.

We call on the Commission to give priority to local employment initiatives and territorial pacts.

We are investing in the fight against unemployment and, especially, in local employment initiatives.

I do not want to end without referring to the importance of the link between local employment initiatives and health and safety at work.

We are asking the Member States to rapidly demolish the obstacles that they have so far set up in the way of such local employment initiatives.

I would also draw your attention to the fact that the Irish presidency is organizing a conference on local employment initiatives in November of this year.

Firstly, we must take care to ensure that local employment initiatives do not fall into the trap of duplicating other work, on normal working conditions, access to the employment market, qualifications etc.

We are pleased to note that the Irish presidency of the Council intends to focus attention on the contribution which local employment initiatives can make towards solving the problem of unemployment in the Union.

The Autonomous Regions of Madeira and the Azores are privileged regions for the promotion of local employment initiatives, particularly in the fields of tourism, the environment, crafts and atypical work.

We know that Ireland has a great deal of experience, indeed that it already has over 15 years' experience of local employment initiatives, and it would be good if further advances could be achieved in this field.

We do not want to create any new local employment initiatives in competition with SMEs; such action should be taken as a parallel effort accompanying in a fair and balanced manner our promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises.

A review of the conditions of application of the Funds would entail changes in their use, perhaps moving them away from major infrastructural investments in order to focus more on work which is economically productive, human resources and local employment initiatives.

We have supported local employment initiatives by means of preparatory action, for which there has been a budget line called B5-503, and it is Parliament' s desire that this initiative should be followed up and continued via pilot projects under Article 129.

It is worth pointing out the demand to the Commission to bring about framework conditions which are favourable for local employment initiatives as well as compulsorily introducing financial resources for local development and supporting local companies in as many different ways as possible.

For example, I see the enhancement of regional and local employment initiatives and the greater emphasis on equal opportunities for women in employment policy as being positive, although I believe that Mrs Theorin' s criticism in this respect is still valid.

In addition to the specific equal opportunities priority in the social fund regulation it is intended to implement the mainstreaming approach through all policy fields and to build on actual experience in the regional and local development context including local employment initiatives and territorial employment pacts.

However, since we attach great importance, in the new proposals for structural reform, to local initiatives and, in particular, to local employment initiatives, I am assuming that continuing to promote similar measures in future as part of a programme will be an important concern for all of us.

The Commission should encourage and promote an exchange of experiences between Member States where local employment initiatives of interest have already been implemented and also will have to play in full the role of dynamic force in encouraging any credible and effective solutions that might help to tackle the social scourge of unemployment.